Call for proposals: The Welfare and Ecology of Juvenile Wild Animals. This call is open to anyone, but we are especially interested in supporting postdocs and PhD students pursuing a long-term research career in the field of wild animal welfare. It particularly encourages applications from researchers who have not previously included welfare considerations in their work. If you are not sure whether your project would be relevant to understanding wild animal welfare, please feel free to contact us to discuss your idea.

Wild Animal Initiative

Wild Animal Initiative aims to improve the well-being of as many animals as possible. Therefore, we prioritize work on the most numerous wild animals, such as rodents, fish, and even invertebrates. The same logic leads us to prioritize research into the early lives of wild animals. While only some animals will survive to experience adulthood, a much greater proportion experience what life is like as a juvenile member of their species.

Therefore, it solicits proposals for research on the welfare, ecology, and everyday experiences of juvenile wild animals. Relevant projects might include studies that extend captive animal welfare assessment techniques to juvenile wild animals or those that demonstrate how ecological concepts can relate to wild animal health and wellbeing.

Funding 

Wild Animal Initiative will generally fund whatever is required for the project to be completed. However, we prioritize funding for direct research costs such as for supplies, materials, and travel. Funding for other expense areas (such as stipends, salaries, or durable goods) should be fully justified relative to the project goals. However, Wild Animal Initiative does not provide funding for indirect costs or institutional overhead.

Eligibility

Wild Animal Initiative provides grants for research projects that help us understand and improve the lives of wild animals. Eligible projects will shed light on one of the following questions:

• What are the subjective experiences of wild animals like?
• What strategies can we use to improve the welfare of wild animals responsibly?

All final proposals will be required to explain how their anticipated results could inform part of a holistic welfare assessment based on the Five Domains framework of animal welfare (Mellor et al. 2020, Figure 1).

Preferred Areas

Wild Animal Initiative will prioritize eligible projects insofar as they are

• especially likely to enable or motivate further welfare-relevant research, such as by establishing foundational concepts, developing novel methods, or engaging with areas of active discourse.
• especially unlikely to attract interest from other funders.
• relevant to especially numerous taxa.

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